About this episode

The episode discusses Sweden's shift from high-tax government to embracing capitalism through privatization and business promotion.

Sweden, once considered by many as the standard bearer of high-tax and high-spend government, has embraced capitalism. WSJ’s Tom Fairless reports on how the Nordic country privatized large swaths of its healthcare and school systems, promoted business and shrank the state. Ryan Knutson hosts. Further Listening: - Germany’s Economy Is Spiraling. Can War Fix It? - China's Cheap Goods Are Europe's Problem Now Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Ryan Knutson

Topics covered

• capitalism
• Sweden
• healthcare privatization
• education reform
• government spending
• Nordic countries

Keywords

• Sweden
• capitalism
• healthcare
• education
• government
• privatization
• Nordic

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Wall Street Journal, Spotify Studios

Places: Sweden, Germany, China, Europe

More episodes of The Journal.

• Is SpaceX Worth the Hype? · June 11, 2026 · 23 min
• How Beef Got So Expensive · June 10, 2026 · 21 min
• Bill Gates’s Carefully Crafted Image Is Cracking · June 9, 2026 · 24 min
• The World Cup Story, Part 1: Soccer and Scandal · June 7, 2026 · 39 min
• Americans Have More Credit Card Debt Than Ever · June 5, 2026 · 21 min
• How AI Is Being Trained to Do Your Job · June 4, 2026 · 22 min

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Journal. podcast page.